Mayor's Race in Final Days of Campaigning

10/28/2009

With less than a week to go before Election Day, the candidates for Seattle Mayor are working hard to woo the thousands of undecided voters in the race. A poll released yesterday by the University of Washington shows T-Mobile executive Joe Mallahan widening his lead over environmentalist Mike McGinn. But close to 20 percent of likely voters are still undecided in the race.

Joe Mallahan had hoped to spend the last week of the campaign out in the neighborhoods, meeting as many people as possible. That's according to his campaign manager Tina Podlodowski.

Podlodowski: "Seattle voters want to look into the eyes of whoever is running for mayor or whoever is running for city council and decide if this is a good guy or good gal or not. And so that's really important in the last week for anyone campaigning."

But after spending a rainy Monday in the International District, Mallahan came down with a high fever. Podlodowski had to take his place at a meet and greet at the Ballard Library yesterday.

Podlodowski: "I'm so sorry Joe has the flu, he really wanted to be here."

Podlodowski says she hopes Mallahan can resume campaigning later in the week.

Podlodowski: "My goal is to make sure he is feeling better, as quickly as he possibly can."

Mike McGinn is pursuing a similar strategy as Mallahan. He's putting together a series of neighborhood appearances throughout the city. The goal is to reach those 20 percent of voters who say they are still undecided about the race.

McGinn: "So that's why we are doing a new round of town halls at the end of the campaign, we figure if we publicize them, you know, those voters that are trying to sort out their choices, well, we'll give them a chance for a personal interview."

Both campaigns are doing multiple nightly phone banks, and volunteers are busy posting on blogs and social networking sites. McGinn says now that the election is all vote–by–mail, campaign tactics have changed.

McGinn: "You can't have a campaign that reaches its crescendo on Election Day. You have to reach your crescendo the Thursday or Friday that ballots arrive, and then you have 3 weekends where you have to maintain it through those 3 weekends. So it's really challenging."

The McGinn campaign this week launched a new TV ad. It attacks Mallahan for his support of the downtown deep–bore tunnel: "Joe Mallahan's campaign is funded by the same people who will make millions off the tunnel. And Joe Mallahan promises us there won't be any cost overruns?"

Joe Mallahan's campaign is also working on a new negative ad, they call it a contrasting ad, and that may be on TV later today.

But the ad that is getting the most attention is from one of Mallahan's supporters, the Seattle Firefighters Union Local 27. They produced this cheerful but cheesy spot that features Mallahan as an astronaut and as Albert Einstein: "Who can move Seattle forward, make smart decisions too. Who can build the tunnel, it's the right thing to do. Joe Mallahan."

The firefighters say the ad was produced just for fun. They posted it on You Tube, and it's been picked up by Comedy Central's Website Indecision Forever. Seattle voters will have to make their decision eventually. Ballots must be mailed by November 3. As of yesterday, only about 10 percent of Seattle voters had cast their ballots.

Deborah Wang, KUOW News.

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